Synopsis:
Journey to a magical hotel in the Swiss Alps, where two lost souls living in different centuries meet and discover that behind its many doors, they may just find a second chance.
‘Have you travelled a long way?’ she asked carefully. A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. ‘Well, yes,” he said slowly. ‘Yes, you could say that. But it was worth the wait.’
London, 2015
When reclusive art appraiser Eve Shaw shakes the hand of a silver-haired gentleman in her London office, the warmth of his palm sends a spark through her.
His name is Max Everly – curiously, the same name as Eve’s favourite composer, born one hundred sixteen years prior. And she can’t shake the feeling that she’s held his hand before . . . but where, and when?
The White Octopus Hotel, 1935
Decades earlier, high in the snowy Swiss Alps, Eve and a young Max Everly wander the winding halls of the grand belle epoque White Octopus Hotel, lost in time.
Each of them has been through the trenches – Eve in a family accident and Max on the battlefields of the Great War – but for an impossible moment, love and healing are just a room away . . . if only they have the courage to step through the door.
Review:
The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell is a book that had me questioning… a lot. Questioning the main character, Eve, and her past. Questioning what exactly was this mysterious White Octopus Hotel. Questioning Max Everly, the man who influences Eve no matter the time period. Questioning the magic running through the novel, and even questioning how it all fits together.
In the end, I still had questions, but it turns out that I didn’t need all the answers. The White Octopus Hotel is a twisty time travel fantasy that kept me captivated throughout and surprised me even as I flipped the final pages.
Just this year I’ve read plenty of fantasy books with time travel, romance, and a central mystery at the core, but even with a large field of similar books, Alexandra Bell found creative ways to separate her book from the others.
I’m not going to get much into the plot — I’m not sure I could get into much without spoiling key moments. But, I felt like Eve was almost like a companion of The Doctor as she investigated and entered the mysterious White Octopus Hotel. On more than a few episodes of Doctor Who, our heroes visit hotels with rooms that aren’t as they appear with a healthy dose of timey-wimey shenanigans. The only difference here is that Eve is traveling on her own without the reassuring presence of The Doctor at her side.
Already traumatized by an event with her sister as a child, Eve is compelled to visit the long-closed White Octopus Hotel when an elderly man visits her in 2015. It up-ends her life and she ventures to Europe to find this mysterious hotel — giving me a few vibes from Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, complete with the impact of a world war on the residents and staff of the hotel itself. Back in 1935, Max Everly is visiting the hotel, his first time back since he had been wounded in World War I. Somehow these two are brought together and they work to unravel mysteries in both of their lives.
Bell did a magnificent job connecting the dots, but still left a little mystery on the bone as well. I really enjoyed my time at the hotel and will gladly check-in for a re-read of The White Octopus Hotel.
Thank you to Del Rey for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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